Mississippi Rebels 89, Indiana Hoosiers 71: turnovers doom Hoosiers again.

by John M (The Crimson Quarry) on Nov 19, 2009 9:15 PM EST

Here's the box score. It was a 78 possession game. IU's 21 turnovers amount to 26 percent. The good news? IU committed 14 turnovers in the first half, so they did cut the giveaways in half inthe second half. IU led 20-11 with 14:10 left in the first half and then turned the ball over on 7 of the next 9 possessions, Mississippi was ahead 23-20, and it only got worse. IU threatened, playing reasonably well at the beginning of the second half, and had a chance to pull to within six late in the game, but turned the ball over. I really don't know what to say about the turnovers. It has to get better. The good news? IU had 24 offensive rebounds in 52 opportunities. Very good. And Ole Miss turned the ball over 19 times, which is a very high number for a team that doesn't turn the ball over very often. It's not that hard to see the Izzo influence on Crean, and how IU could win games by crashing the boards and playing aggressive defense. But we can't keep gacking up 25 percent of our possessions.

Even worse? 12-27 from the foul line. Mississippi shot 62 percent in the second half. This is a scattershot preview because there will be a quick turnaround. The individuals:

Christian Watford struggled, scoring 5 points on 2-10 from the field.
Tom Pritchard was decent: 8 points, 3-5 from the field, 8 rebounds.
Maurice Creek scored 18 points on 15 shots.
Verdell Jones scored 17 points but needed 15 shots to get there.

I'm more disappointed than I should be. I wasn't expecting to make the NCAA Tournament this year, but this team looked every bit as bad as the 2008-09 product for most of the game. I know that they really aren't that bad. The 2008-09 team would have been able to make some of the runs or some of the plays that IU made tonight. As i write this, Kansas State leads Boston U. by 5 in the second half, so it's still not clear which team IU will play in tomorrow's untelevised game. I'll write it up one way or another.

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Comments

Agree that the game was disappointing

Which I think is just a function of better expectations now. I still think that they can be better than this. The turnovers are frustrating. Even more frustrating is their futility from the line. Ack. What I want to see now is improvement. And I think that is the difference between this year and last. With last year’s team, you kind of knew that there was a pretty low ceiling, so after a game like this, all you could do was shrug it off. This team IS better than they showed today. Yound team, take their lumps, blah, blah, blah… I just want and expect to see them improve on things like turnovers, free throws, and defense. All fixable problems.

by hoosierdaddynow on Nov 19, 2009 10:30 PM EST reply actions

I came into this game with higher expectations than should have as well. We’re still a young team, and the freshmen are still getting used to the differences in college vs. AAU. That’s why I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on the alarmingly high number of stupid, completely ill advised passes. My hope is that they eventually stop doing that as the season progresses.

by D.M.J. on Nov 19, 2009 11:45 PM EST reply actions